Lane Kiffin is reportedly giving one of his top recruiting staffers a promotion to an on-field position. John Brice of FootballScoop shared Tuesday, per sources, that Kiffin is filling a staff opening by elevating Kelvin Bolden to tight ends coach.

Bolden had been the Coordinator of Recruiting Strategy for the Rebels. He was hired by Kiffin in March 2022. Bolden will fill the vacancy created by John David Baker’s departure to become offensive coordinator at East Carolina.

Bolden has familiarity with the Magnolia State as a Southern Miss graduate (2011). He also knows the SEC well, having worked at multiple conference programs before arriving in Oxford.

For two seasons (2018-19), Bolden was an Arkansas graduate assistant working with wide receivers. He then went home to Southern Miss, where he was promoted from an off-field role to wide receivers coach during the 2020 season.

In 2021, Bolden was hired by Dan Mullen, joining the Florida staff as an Assistant Director of Player Personnel. After Mullen was let go, Bolden announced that he would be joining Gus Malzahn’s UCF staff as Director of Recruiting Relations/WR Assistant. He was only in Orlando for 2 months before being hired away by Ole Miss, a move that has worked out well for both parties.